UPDATE: Somewhat remarkably, Grantham (more likely the school in response to panicked inquiries) felt the need to issue a formal response to the rumors.

“This time of year there are a lot of rumors involving coaching openings. Because of the terrific recruiting class we are assembling and the juniors that have communicated to me their desire to come back to Georgia I felt it important to address some of these current and any future rumors. I’ve had discussions with Coach Richt and (AD) Greg McGarity and we are on track to finalizing details on a contract extension. My family enjoys Athens very much. I love the passion and excitement of our fans. We have the program headed in the right direction and I want to be a part of bringing Georgia a championship. My desire is to be at UGA for a very long time. Go Dawgs!”

Yeah this sounds about right. The Barn & flarda doing good…and now this…
On the upside tho, if I ever needed a reason to totally dismiss the falcons and stop pretending and maybe even hate them or pull against them, this would just about take care of it.

Seriously, Bama puts on one of the best defensive clinics EVER (with the help of some seriously poor planning on LSU’s part) and you decide to pass on Kirby Smart? WTF?!
I think Grantham is fantastic, but you would think Smart would at least get a feeler, regardless of if it really is Saban’s D.

It’s highly unlikely that the Falcons would want to switch from the 4-3 to the 3-4 with the personnel in place. That would not lead back to the playoffs next year. Just because someone decided to tweet it doesn’t make it true.

The Falcons just paid Ray Edwards a lot of money and he’s a 4-3 DE. Our Defensive line is deep and our only real strength. We barely have 3 LB who can drop into coverage, and with so many FA on the defense and no 1st or 4th round draft picks, it would be a 2 plus year rebuild to change schemes.

Just because they may have contacted his agent, it doesn’t mean they’re focused on him or haven’t sent feelers out to other candidates. Point being, this doesn’t mean an offer from the Falcons is imminent, as some of you seem to be concerned about above.

From Grantham’s point of view, he’s shown he can be a fantastic college D coordinator, but he hasn’t shown that he can be a great pro D coordinator (although I think he may have been a victim of bad teams/personnel while at that position in the pros). If his goal is truly to become a head coach, I’d stick with the college gig… but that’s my $.02.

This is probably not a real thing, since Grantham’s a proponent of a completely different scheme than Atlanta’s personnel would seem to fit as noted by other commenters. However, if it IS true, then this is solely the Senator’s fault for jinxing us with a “this offseason sure is going to be quiet” post on January 7th.

Sources tell me the Falcons have reached out to the agent of Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.

Dissect that. Sources? Uh, the agent himself.
Now, why on earth would an agent say something like that right in the middle of an ongoing negotiation? Oh, right. Negotiating 101. I forgot.

Two reasons that this is silly.
1. The Falcons have 4-3 personnel. No real DT’s, two 4-3 prototype DE’s (one of which they just inked last year), practically invisible LB’s and midget CB’s complemented by run-stopping/WR chasing into the endzone safeties. An overhaul would be required.

The linebackers are actually pretty good and there are a bunch of them. Lofton, Nicholas, and Spoon are really good. A few other guys still developing.

Atlanta probably could make the 3-4 switch more easily than people think. Abe is a FA now. If the new DC is a 34 guy, letting Abe go frees up a lot of money. Sidbury looks like a prototypical 34 OLB and Kroy Biermann could play that position too. . Lofton and Nicholas (or Dent even) would be ILBs and Spoon could go play OLB. The dlinemen they have can play 34 DE. Babineaux, Cliff Matthews, Peria Jerry, and Corey Peters could figure that out. Babs might even be able to play the nose. There’d have to be a few big signings though. And Ray Edwards probably wouldn’t fit in anywhere.

But… Even then. Grantham has to be behind Mike Nolan, Steve Spagnulo, Jack Del Rio, Mike Zimmer, Mel Tucker, and Eric Mangini anyway. Those guys have better resumes and more experience/success as a pro DC.

Plus, if they were looking a college coaches (they probably aren’t) they’d look at Kirby Smart first.

I’m not a Falcons fan, so I can’t speak much to their personnel, but I wonder if they’re willing to undergo a scheme change if they have to rebuild on personell anyway? I’m not sure a scheme change is as painful for a pro team as it is for a college team, anyway. More opportunities to practice, study, etc.

From everything I’ve been reading, the Falcons are going hard after Steve Spagnuolo. It’s been said before, but I just can’t see the Falcons making the switch to the 3-4…their personnel doesn’t fit it, it wouldn’t work for their linebackers they’ve drafted, and it sure wouldn’t work with Ray Edwards.

On top of all that, Grantham has made it known that he wants to be a head coach. He seems to like recruiting (he’s said as much from the get-go, and with the Jenkins commit, seems to be good at it), so I have a feeling he stays and parlays the solid defense into a head coaching position somewhere in college, as opposed to a coordinator position in the NFL.

PLEASE SAY IT AINT SO, TODD!
There’s every reason for Grantham and the Atlanta Falcons to immediatly put an end to this if it’s only a rumor. They have to know it will hurt recruiting. I also suspect that this serves many people’s purposes (Grantham’s negotiations, every college in the SE USA for recruiting, news outlets for interest, etc), while it can only hurt UGA.
I hope the rumor is killed very quickly, or we will have to suspect that maybe it IS so, Todd.

Grantham is not going anywhere-no way he would have Jarvis stay then bolt himself–would ruin his credibility for ever as a college coach–what is really better than making close to a million a year and living in Athens ?

(loyalty…sp from above post)…
Point is…..For those who have the “mojo” of success sticking to them, lack of past loyalty doesn’t count. Hungry teams and programs will line up to bid for their services. That’s my point above.

Help me out here….yes I’ve heard of PItino. What does Pitino’s knocking up of the equipment managers wife have to do with Coach TG being courted by the Falcons?
( And a “I beg your pardon” to all the lady/wo-person posters here who might take exception to the phase “knocking up”)

I was using Pitino as an example of a coach who never seems to let the fear of losing his credibilty his decisions.
BLR79 was making the point that TG would be risking his credibility if he left Georgia (esp after just signing JJ).
Two completely different individuals and a personal equivalancy is not intended…I’m just saying it happens.
(Was it not Pitino who tried to weasle into Auburn behind TT’s back, then went to the Falcons for a week or so, then left ATL for Arkansas…am I leaving anything out? I wouldn’t let him in my henhouse.

Atlanta Falcons: Sources with knowledge of the situation tell me that a member of the Falcons’ organization has been in contact with Michael Harris, the agent representing University of Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. Georgia has been working on a new contract with Grantham’s agent, but don’t be surprised if the new contract is signed in the next few days. With the departure of Brian VanGorder, the Falcons are looking for a new defensive coordinator.

I think I see the fine hand of Kirby Smart in this anonymous tip. Anything to derail recruiting momentum for UGA as Grantham gets a commitment from a 5 star anchor for this year’s class. Of course, it could be Chin Gizik or SOD or Spurrier, or Dabo or Flahduh or a host of others. It’s just life in the shark tank known as the SEC.

The Falcons arent a 3-4 team, dont have 3-4 personnel, and dont seem likely to want to wait a couple of years while a new guy comes in and scraps their entire system. Mike Smith worked for Jack Del Rio, you’d think JDR, or any number of 4-3 guys who can tweak a system Smith already knows would be the way the Falcons are going.

That’s kind of being overlooked as a reason this is unlikely to be true. That and the fact that he coaches the wrong system for the Falcons personnel. And Blank isn’t going to hire UGA’s DC. Oh…and it’s not going to happen.

Would not have these issues if we had an Athletic Board and Athletic Department worth a damn. Understand recruting is in full swing, but that is pretty much year round anyway. So when you hear McGarity’s comments last week about extensions, we will sit down after recruiting period, and etc. In essence we have a bunch of over paid idiots, people who can not make decisions, and people who piss away time like it is there forever. Time is money or did they not get any degree in business administration. When the alums demand an Athletic Board and Athletic Department that is more than your local community recreation department…well, just maybe our men’s big three will be men’s programs at the top in the SEC. You can not recruit top players unless you have top coaches. Just maybe McGarity is not the AD we thought along with Adams as president of the University.

Saw that NRBQ. I’ve already received emails from friends where the general theme is “BOBO WASTED HIS TALENT”, etc. He certainly didn’t maximize it but I’m curious, has Bobo ever moved a player from a position he wasn’t familiar with and HAD success?

ie- Donnan moving Robert Edwards from D to RB or Richt putting Pollack at DE.
W

Initially, I thought Grantham said, “My desire is to beat UGA for a very long time.”

Whew.

Bloviation for the Dawgnation

Quote Of The Day

“It's definitely different not knowing exactly who it's gonna be, but in a way, I feel like that's good,” he said. “One of my old coaches from Valdosta told me that competition is one of the best coaches. And I feel like, as well as each one of those three guys is performing, they're not gonna do anything but make each other better.” -- Jay Rome, The Red & Black, 3/25/15